HUNTER TURNS PREY
Formula works well in Maine-set ‘Blood and Money’
“Blood and Money,” originally titled “Allagash,” was shot in western Maine, and that is one of the best things about it. A snow-covered neo-noir about a down on his luck, retired Maine hunter (Tom Berenger), who in the North Maine Woods comes across several people involved in a bloody theft at a nearby casino, the film is a modest, solid effort.
Berenger’s crusty, chainsmoking, seriously ill Jim Reed is a Vietnam vet and former Marine responsible for the death of his daughter while he was driving drunk. He hasn’t spoken to his adult son in over a year, and Reed is a recovering alcoholic who “slips.” He lives for the time being in his snug RV, which he parks in local lots, when he isn’t out in the woods with his rifle, tracking deer.
Jim bags a doe in opening scenes, but as he tells anyReed one who will listen he’s looking “to bag a buck.” Instead, he finds himself with a bag full of $1.2 million in cash and four heavily armed bad guys hot, make that lukewarm, on his trail. Yes, this is one of those old Rambo meets four losers in the woods stories. But it is a sound formula. The locations are beautiful. The trees and snow are real, and the film plays its cards mostly right.
Berenger, who was so memorable in Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” and other 1980s standouts such as “Dogs of War,” “The Big Chill,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Major League,” delivers a fine, low-key performance as Down Easter Reed. But as the song goes, if didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck at all, and yet he survives in the winter woods, even if it means whipping out his trusty Zippo and lighting up a small fortune in $100 bills.
The screenplay, which was co-written by first-time feature director and former Mainer John Barr, who has been a working cinematographer and served in that capacity here as well, is serviceable and reminiscent of low-budget black-and-white noirs of the 1950s, although absent the usual femme fatale figure. The mournful, minimalist score by Zak McNeil (“Mister Sadpants”) adds another touch of class.
Reed vaguely knows a young waitress at a local pizza joint. Her name is Debbie (Kristen Hager), and her life is almost as depressing as his. She has a sick daughter and an alcoholic veteran husband named George (Jimmy LeBlanc), whom Reed runs into
at an AA meeting and later — what are the odds? — hunting in the woods. The two then encounter four of the trigger-happy thieves, who killed three security guards at the casino, and the bad guys want their money back.
Although he shot in the more accessible western part of the state, Barr knows the Allagash region according to the Bangor Daily News. But the people of Allagash (pop. 220) are not happy that he didn’t come visit and film there. This probably explains why “Allagash,” a more resonant title, was replaced by the generic current tag. Still, it’s worth a look.
(“Blood and Money” contains violence and profanity.)